With the summer break here, parents have hordes of activities planned for their kids.
But the planning and the activities if overdone or underdone, can become the cause of summer blues for parents.
Summer break means fun, frolic, sun bathing, eating popsicles, spending endless hours playing or even indulging in all sorts of water activities. However, for parents, summer break can prove to be very stressful.
Here are five tips to keep the summer break blues at bay –
1. Don’t overschedule:
According to Daisy Vergara, our child therapist, parents put their kids in a lot of activities during the summer but that is not always the healthiest option for both kids or the parents. “While kids are busy, it also stresses parents out in terms of keeping track of these activities, bringing their kids to them and hauling them after, etc.” Balancing these activities with vacation plans and some real relaxing time can become very challenging. Moreover, having too many activities would mean more work for parents when rolling back the schedule and getting the kids used to the school-routine once the school starts.
2. Under-scheduling:
Just like having too many activities planned could be tedious, so is under scheduling. “If they don’t put their kids in activities, they are about to get enough of their kids because they are home all the time and would end up driving parents crazy because they are bored and most of them time, indoors” says Vergara. This would also mean that parents will have to find ways to keep their kids entertained all the time. So instead of taking up the summer schedule planning responsibility on yourself, sit down with your kids and discuss what they would like to do. Of course, exercise your parental veto wherever necessary but give your kids a chance to come up with ideas to keep themselves busy.
3. Let there be some structure to the chaos
Summer breaks don’t have to become excuses for dramatic shifts in routines and chaotic days. Having some semblance of regular days, maintaining some chores and giving some sort of studies-related fun activities would help maintain the balance. Additionally, if you are a working parent, worrying about the kids being at home, doing whatever they want like watching endless hours of television or making a mess of the kitchen, can be stressful too. Limiting screen time, even if it is summer break time, having certain ground rules, can help parents. It isn’t about being overbearing and rigid, it is just about finding the balance to make life easier.
4. Co-parenting
Another way to deal with the whole kids-are-at-home-all-day-how-do-we-deal-with-them-without-worrying situation would be to formulate a plan with other parents and share the “fun” planning responsibilities with them. Car-pooling, planning camping activities and sleep overs, if done by any one family, can be very difficult on them. Instead, making such plans, who will pick up and drop off the kids to the summer camps or who will have the kids over for fishing trips or ice cream outings or a movie night, can be shared between different families. This will automatically add variety to the kids’ schedule, they will get to spend time with their friends without worrying their parents and every parent will have a lighter plate to manage.
5. Plan vacations but make plans for downtime
Vacation planning is not the only thing that can cause stress. The actual vacation itself can be very stressful. Often parents cram too much in one vacation – want to see all, show all to their kids. This can be very tiring and the vacation won’t be relaxing at all. So planning a vacation is important to have that much-needed family-bonding time, but so is planning some downtime.
